Things Are Afoot

Chalker Photos from last weekend

Sue, who came on both the weekend walks very kindly sent me a few snaps, which I thought I'd post here. These first two are in St Dunstan-in-the-East, a Wren church that was largely obliterated during the Blitz of 1941, except for the steeple and a few walls. Rather than rebuilding or demolishing completely, it was decided to transform it in to a rather nice walled garden.

Marveling at the George Inn, as mentioned in a previous post.

Thanks to the efforts of Sam Wanamaker, we now have Shakespeare's Globe theatre in all its thatched glory.

Weekend Round up - 26th & 27th Nov

So, the first full-ish weekend of Bowl Of Chalks has taken place. Thanks very much to all who came. A bit of tweakage will take place for the next ones, as they ended up being mildly longer than I had anticipated. Still, the weather was clement and it's very much a work in progress. A few awards:

Youngest Chalker - Toby (not even 1 yet, but was as good as gold throughout the whole walk on Saturday)

Most dog-like Chalker - Enid (see photo)

Most Australian Chalkers - Robb, Ria & Sonja

Most parent-like Chalkers - My parents

Smallest people spotted by Sundays' Chalkers (see photo below)

By street artist Pablo Delgado

The only Chalker to spot a fox reading a book in a window - Miss A. Greiner (see photo below)

columbia road flower market

Most incredibly pregnant Chalker - Kat Butterfield (due to give birth next week. Best of luck)

then and Now

Every self respecting literature student knows that Geoffrey 'Geoff' Chaucer's pilgrims began 'The Canterbury Tales' in 1386 from Copyprints Ltd Business Centre in Southwark. Well, sort of ... it was in fact The Tabard, an Inn, which, along with most of Southwark was burnt down in what became known as the Little Fire of London in the 1670's. Due to a sign makers' error, it was accidentally re-named The Talbot, after which the whole yard is still currently known and The Tabard/Talbot is now a site occupied by Copyprints Ltd Business Centre.

The Old Tabard Inn

However, do not despair, because just next door, another pub burnt down in the same fire and was also rebuilt in 1676. It's called the George Inn, and thanks to the National Trust (who own it), most of it is still there. It's the only galleried coaching Inn left in London and if you come on the 'London in a nutshell' walk, we'll go and see it. Incidentally, for fans of Charles Dickens, it gets a mention in 'Little Dorrit'. I'm sure Dickens would have loved the new outside heaters.

Very Confusing Bridges

I've been walking and talking people around London for a while now, but it very quickly became apparent that the two bridges pictured below, which are next to each other, are very often confused. More to the point, people actually seem disappointed that London Bridge is London Bridge, like it's somehow a bit of a let down. The current London Bridge was built in 1973 and was completely paid for (at a cost of £4m) by a pot of money that has been floating around since the first bridge was built there in 1209. Not bad. Anyway, I took these photos on Monday night after a walk when a brilliant wintery fog was descending. If you'd like to know why London Bridge has that very distinctive red light at night or see a bit of the original one, come on a Bowl Of Chalk. Innit.

BOC Marketing team on fire

So, yesterday the Bowl Of Chalk marketing team were on fire. Phase 1 of the hot new advertising campaign was rolled out and executed with an unnerving precision. A whole lot of people let me display little A4 posters in their shops and cafes; Broadway Books, Pages of Hackney, i made it for you, Fix, Tina We Salute You, Look Mum No hands, Hackney City Farm, Rio Cinema, Off Broadway, Railroad and De Beauvoir Deli to name just a few.

I can safely say that if all the other adverts and wot not that were already there, were taken away, then mine would really stand out.

St paul's cathedral

I'm quite a big fan of St. Paul's cathedral. It's obviously been in the news a fair bit recently, with all the occupy London stuff that's been going on and the fact that it's only the second time in the cathedral's illustrious history that it has closed its doors to the public. The first was for four days during the blitz. Anyway, I won't harp on about St Paul's factoids, but was down there yesterday and just wanted to share a couple of photos.

Lots of domes all under one massive dome. The other thing is that millions of people have gazed upon St. Paul's for the last 300 years, but only recently from the top of the New Change shopping centre. Paulio was looking pretty fruity from up there last night.

Bits of London bridge in victoria park

It was a lovely autumnal day in London today, and as I was wondering around Victoria Park in east London, I thought I'd take a couple of photos of bits of London bridge. That's right. London Bridge.

In the early 1800's the shops and houses that lined the bridge were taken down and replaced with alcoves or shelters. I think there were 14 in all. A few years later John Rennie completed the next London Bridge (1831) and 4 of the alcoves were saved. One is in Guy's hospital with a sculpture of John Keats sitting in it, another is in a council estate somewhere in south London, and the remaining two were deposited in Victoria park in 1860. They look like this: